"In an age of universal deception,telling the truth is a revolutionary act"

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Class Warfare

We're engaged in life-or-death class warfare whether we recognize it or not.

The persons on the right side in the image above have declared war against us and they're busy killing thousands of people in our class.

The two classes at war with each other can be delineated in several ways:

* By wealth: the class of the rich 1 against the class of the poor

* By ownership: the capitalist class (owners of the means of production) versus the working class

* By ideology: the class of those for government by men against the class of those for government by law

* By intelligence and culture: the class of the ignorant and barbaric (image right) against the class of the intelligent and refined

Class: A division of persons or things by quality, rank, or grade; degree of excellence: caliber, grade, quality

War: Armed conflict between states or nations (international war) or between factions within a state (civil war), prosecuted by force and having the purpose of compelling the defeated side to do the will of the victor

In this essay, we'll first explore class warfare in terms of the struggle of moneyed oppressors against the working class. We'll then examine class warfare in terms of the struggle of the class promoting ignorance and despotism versus the class advocating truth and wisdom. We'll identify ourselves as members of a newly-defined class or type that advances freedom and understanding.

The Warfare of the Rich Against the Poor

"If there's been class warfare in this country, my class won."

Warren Buffett

This very day the enemy class will murder more:

+ American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan

# Iraqi children and adults and medically uninsured American children and adults

* Unemployed and homeless persons - some who've lost their homes because of economic cannibalism by the capitalist class

Should you hate these obscenely wealthy unprincipled persons who are killing working-class people without compunction? No, it's not necessary or advisable 2 to allow yourself to get into a hating mode in relation to them. Should you wake up to the fact that they're murdering us and fight against what they're doing ? You bet! They're able to devastate the poor because we're not awake enough to realize what they're doing to us. We must wake up and start fighting this civil war if we want to save our very lives.

While at least a billion people on the planet subsist on the equivalent of a dollar a day or less, the concentration of wealth among a handful of people at the top has set new records. Forbes magazine listed a record 946 individuals and family units worth $1 billion or more in 2007, an increase from 793 in 2006. The combined wealth of these billionaires also reached record levels--a staggering $3.5 trillion, an increase of 35 percent in just one year, due largely to resurging stock prices.

Why don't working-class people recognize that they're being murdered by the criminal cabal that seized power in 2000 and retained control through election fraud in 2002 and 2004? Because most American citizens' minds have been destroyed through brainwashing, propaganda and subversion of education so that they can't even recognize these facts staring at them in the face:

* America has become a totalitarian police state

* America has been debased into a militaristic aggressor nation

* America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are for the purpose of war profiteering and world economic conquest

* America has fallen to the status of a world destroyer

* American Constitutional freedoms have been decimated

The Bush junta refuses to abide by the Constitution and laws. It creates legal pretexts for criminally imprisoning and torturing anyone it brands as a "terrorist," it creates "signing statements" that declare it will not abide laws Dubya has just signed, it spies on American citizens, it has turned the federal departments of Defense, Justice, and State into political special-interest enclaves.

Neocons and their Democratic party co-conspirator members of the enemy class like to claim that a term such as "class warfare" is only used by those they brand as unpatriotic, extremist progressives, with the implication that ordinary Americans don't believe there is a class war. Actually, Americans are waking up to what's happening to the country--as illustrated by the 2006 elections. In polls asking if Americans believe our nation is divided into "haves" and "have-nots," about 50% now answer Yes. Some awakening is taking place, because that same poll question in 1988 resulted in 71% of Americans rejecting the "have"--"have-not" notion while only 26% saw a divided nation.

Though working-class Americans are somewhat awakening to the fact that they're being destroyed by the vulture class, there is still no genuine understanding as to what they must do. Many are still allowing themselves to be taken in by the cabal myth that we have a genuine two-party system.

At least since the American presidential election of 1868, the financiers who've ruled this country have hand-picked the presidential candidates in both the Democratic and Republican parties. Whichever party wins, they have their puppet in power.

It's difficult for us to grasp the full significance of the cabal's control over both political parties, as well as the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of our government, along with military and religious groups.

We assume that conditions for American workers will inevitably improve by just electing new leaders--as we thought was happening in the 2006 mid-term election.

"If the elections of November 7 [2006] were an expression of the sentiments of the broad mass of the American people, then the announcement just two months later by Bush of his administration’s 'new strategy' in Iraq demonstrated above all the completely hollowed-out and decayed character of American . . . democracy. In the face of an overwhelming rejection of the Iraq war, the Bush regime will not only step up its military operations in Iraq but has openly threatened a wider war against Iran and Syria, involving the whole of the Middle East—threats that were repeated in Bush’s State of the Union speech [on 2/11/07]." 3

The entire federal government--with very few exceptions, such as Bernie Sanders, Russ Feingold, and Barney Franks--is controlled by the plutocratic junta that is trying to destroy working-class Americans.

"Roughly half of the US Senate is made up millionaires, many of them Democrats. The House, meanwhile, is led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who in her latest financial disclosure forms reported that she and her investor husband conducted some 30 stock sales and purchases last year, many of them involving sums up to $1 million each. She also reported owning a California vineyard, valued between $5 million and $25 million.

"The Democrats will do no more to reverse the growth of social inequality than they will to end the war in Iraq. In the final analysis, the explosion of militarism abroad and the destruction of working class living standards at home are two sides of a common political agenda aimed at funneling the wealth of the US and the world into the coffers of a financial oligarchy." 4

The takeover of the American government by a plutocratic elite occurred during the Constitutional Convention conspiracy in 1787. Of the fifty-six men who had signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, only six of those attended the Federal Convention in Philadelphia where the specially selected delegates secretly concocted a plutocratic structure of government.

Exactly the same economic conditions that exist now in 2007 were present in America in the early decades of the twentieth century. Given the Robber Baron environment, the nation was just waiting for a financial catastrophe.

"When business in the United States underwent a mild contraction, the Federal Reserve 5 created more paper reserves in the hope of forestalling any possible bank reserve shortage. The Fed succeeded, but it nearly destroyed the economies of the world in the process. The excess credit which the Fed pumped into the economy spilled over into the stock market, triggering a fantastic speculative boom. Belatedly, Federal Reserve officials attempted to sop up the excess reserves and finally succeeded in breaking the boom. But it was too late – the speculative imbalances had become so overwhelming that the attempt precipitated a sharp retrenching, and a consequent demoralizing of business confidence. As a result, the American economy collapsed."

You might think that such an honest, straightforward arraignment of the FED's blunder would have been written by a socialist extremest. It was actually penned by Alan Greenspan and appeared in Ayn Rand's journal, "The Objectivist."

After the FED's 1920s abortive attempt to save the vulture capitalists from their own excesses, the 1929 Stock Market Crash burst on the scene. Since the FED's efforts to save them had failed, the economic power-brokers and financial institutions were forced to face the horrible monetary predicament they had created through their illegal conspiracies, non-transparent commercial dealings, and monopolistic practices. The American people recognized that the Great Depression had been brought on by the lack of regulation of predatory capitalism, so they set up agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and put control ordinances into place.

The only US presidents who demonstrated some independence from the historic US criminal elite--and solidarity with the working-class--were Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. FDR essentially saved American vulture capitalism from its own robber-baron excesses. The conditions which led to the 1929 financial crash in America are back again, but the New Deal remedies of the crisis are no longer possible in the changed conditions that the criminal cabal has created.

You can see just how completely conditions have changed if you look carefully at the recent housing bubble and its foreclosure aftermath, beginning in 2001 and still being played out in 2007. All the regulations that were put into place in the New Deal era have been slowly eroded until now the financial looters have completely free rein to plunder hapless investors and consumers. So, when US banks, hedge funds, and financial institutions recognized in early 2007 that they were in trouble because of their predatory practices, the Federal Reserve System bailed them out to the tune of over $72 billion.

Over the past three decades, the Federal Reserve has created a series of liquidity 6 bubbles:

* In the 1980s excessive liquidity resulted in the stock market bubble which ultimately collapsed in 1987.

* Beginning in the 1990s, the FED's excess credit produced a second speculative bubble in stocks--which burst in 2000.

* When that bubble burst, the Fed pumped in even more liquidity, which went into the real estate market and fed an even bigger speculative bubble; now in 2007 its unraveling is finally beginning to be seen and acknowledged.

In response to the 2007 world economic crisis caused by real estate mortgage scams of diverse kinds, are hapless private investors being assisted in their foreclosure crises? Fogeddaboudid! Central Banks in the US, Japan and the European Union have poured over $250 billion into private banks hoping to save financial institutions caught in the housing bubble scam and provide new liquidity. But the banks won’t fund esoteric, totally non-transparent real estate investment instruments, so the central bank liquidity is once again going into world stock market exchanges. Watch for the upcoming stock market bubble explosion at a theater near you.

Greenspan is pretending that the Fed attempts to rein in excess liquidity once they recognize the error of their ways. However, Ben Bernanke, the new FED chief, says he sees "reining in" as a mistake and that he will never restrict liquidity. All he will do is print more dollars and bailout the banks, hedge funds, and financial institutions, dropping the money from helicopters.

All the current criminal excesses of the financial markets are precisely the same as those of the 1920s, as Robert Kuttner made clear in his testimony before the House Committee on Financial Services, on October 2, 2007.

The vulture capitalists are beginning to realize that worldwide conditions of economic anarchy and corruption may soon wake people up and lead to their demanding regulation of financial institutions to stop their cannibalistic practices.

"The current financial crisis is a wake-up call for modern-day central banking. The world can't afford to lurch from one bubble to another. The cost of neglect is an ever-mounting systemic risk that could pose a grave threat to an increasingly integrated global economy. It could also spur the imprudent intervention of politicians, undermining the all-important political independence of central banks. The art and science of central banking is in desperate need of a major overhaul--before it's too late."

Roach and the other predator capitalists realize the danger of "imprudent intervention of politicians, undermining the all-important political independence of central banks." So, instead of allowing things to get out of their control--as in 1929--they'll do everything they can to retain their "independence"-- unfettered power to continue their cannibalistic carnage.

In their efforts to retain power no matter how bad conditions get, we have to be ready for any calamity.

10/17/07: Reporter: "Mr. President, following up on Vladimir Putin for a moment, he said recently that next year, when he has to step down according to the constitution, as the president, he may become prime minister; in effect keeping power and dashing any hopes for a genuine democratic transition there . . ."

Bush: "I've been planning that myself."

Scenarios that might precipitate and try to justify such a catastrophe include:

* A second 9/11 type attack, planned and carried out by the demonic cabal as was the first attack, leading to the imposition of martial law

* A world financial crash, resulting in a total breakdown of all social infrastructures and ending in a complete police state regime

The Only War Is the Class War

Our first offensive in the ongoing class war is to arm ourselves with deep understanding of what's going on in the world and throw off the stupefying myths and delusions that predator capitalists have encouraged us to swallow. Contrary to their propaganda, Robber Baron capitalism is NOT the only economic system available to us. We don't have to accept vulture capitalism as part of the fabric of reality.

"Consider the wisdom of economist John Maynard Keynes: The rich are tolerable only so long as their gains appear to bear some relation to roughly what they have contributed to society. Think of it as proportional and justified economic success. This can be tolerated by poor and middle class people if they believe the economic system is fair and properly rewards those who work harder or have better capabilities. But truly obscene economic rewards angers people. When most prosperity and wealth is unfairly channeled to relatively few Upper Class people, it is only a matter of time until fuming, resentful people in the Lower Class decide enough is enough and revolt. Perhaps violently, if the political system remains controlled by the Upper Class."

We must face the hard realities of our present world, no longer buying into such illusions as "the invisible hand of the market" or "we must wage a continuing war against terrorism." We certainly can dismiss as depraved Dubya's explanation as to why some people acquire obscene wealth: "Skills gaps yield income gaps." It is true that the Bush family has a long history of skill in treason, beginning with Dubya's grandfather helping to fund Adolph Hitler's regime before the second world war. Bush family skill in treason has resulted in their amassing billions from war profiteering.

Armed with penetrating comprehension of the forces at work in our world, we must begin a potent and dynamic offensive against those who are murdering us: the lawless plutocratic monsters who have seized control of world political and economic systems.

The class struggle is the key liberating force of our time--as in every era. Class struggle isn’t simply our fight as workers against capitalist oppressors; it's the ageless warfare of enlightenment against ignorance, freedom against despotism. Class warfare includes all the individual and collective struggles of exploited people throughout the world against all aspects of our abuse, impoverishment, and murder. Class warfare involves the struggle for working-class power outside of and opposed to capitalist exploitative political, economic, and social structures.

"The struggle of the people in opposition to the privileged class that controls the state, is the dynamic factor in our national development , the theme and meaning of our history."

"We cannot understand the role of the people in history unless we also understand the historical illusions which misrepresent history in order to serve the interests of privileged classes. Thus culture must be studied as a weapon in the struggle of classes.

"Cultural history emerges in its truth and grandeur when it is seen as an unceasing struggle between the oppressor and the oppressed. This is also the link between the present and the past. The long battle against the oppressor is not ended. Man has not yet become the full master of his own life, of the conditions of his social existence.

John Howard Lawson, The Hidden Heritage, 1950

As we've seen, we cannot depend on the Democratic Party in our struggle against oppression--since most Democratic leaders are members of the oppressor class. Whereas in earlier decades we could look to labor unions as allies in our struggle, union leaders have devolved into capitalist co-conspirators and labor brokers. Unions exist to negotiate the sale of their members’ labor power to employers, to keep working people in line, and limit the scale of working-class action against corporations. Unions divert the discontent of union members into harmless channels. They keep workers passive spectators in the events that most affect their lives.

We must understand that the state is the mechanism the ruling class uses to maintain its monopoly of violence (police, military, economic, propaganda) over the working class. Every contemporary government in the world--with the partial exception of Chavez's Venezualan government--is a repressive apparatus defending capitalist property relations. Contempoary states are not socially, politically, or economically neutral institutions or tools that the working class can use to better themselves. The day when we could expect a Franklin Delano Roosevelt to appear as the head of our state and bring in genuine populist reforms is long gone.

Like it or not, we must recognize that electoral politics is a psychologically sophisticated scam deluding voters into thinking they have a real say in how they're governed within the fantasy of a two-party system. In the present police state environment in America, the supposed right to vote is intended to keep us mystified, divided, and passive, and is amazingly effective in keeping us from taking effective action against capitalist predators.

Another of the ideological fantasies we must utterly reject is the socialist swindle that workers worldwide will somehow miraculously rise up, form themselves into a coherent alliance, and confront the capitalist class. Oppression by plutocratic and tyrannous powers does not magically unite people into an effective combat coalition. The number of working-class Americans without health insurance is now 46.6 million, according to the Census Bureau. More than one in 10 American children are uninsured. Being a member of such oppressed groupings does not automatically unite you with the others.

Having a common enemy doesn't mysteriously create a united front. Every day in Congress, plutocratic leaders of both parties promote or vote for tax breaks for the rich or billions more for war profiteering corporations, while at the same time cut programs for working families like insurance for poor children, student loans, food stamps, veterans benefits, home heating programs for the elderly, Medicaid and Medicare. But the victims of these predatory programs do not automatically form into a united phalanx to do battle against the capitalist class.

What is clear is that we cannot hope for remedy from oppression by using the current institutions and processes that our enemies use to delude and murder the working class:

* The political, economic, and social structures of the state

* A political party, whether the Democratic Party of a third party

* The election system, which was totally subverted in 2000 by a coup d'etat and in 2002 and 2004 by fraud, and which can only result in a capitalist-class spokesperson being elected in 2008 who will continue apace the oppressive measures that have been put in place over the last sixty years

The New Class

In our participation in the perennial struggle of the truth against ignorance, we can't allow the accident of our birth in the working class to define us. As we've seen, being a member of the laboring class or one of the oppressed does not, in itself, create class solidarity. Genuine group cohesiveness can only be created by intentional allegiance to common values and common goals.

"I believe in aristocracy. Not an aristocracy of power, based upon rank and influence, but an aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate and the plucky. Its members are to be found in all nations and classes, and all through the ages, and there is a secret understanding between them when they meet. They represent the true human tradition, the one permanent victory of our queer race over cruelty and chaos. . . . On they go--an invincible army . . . The aristocrats, the elect, the chosen, the Best People--all the words that describe them are false, and all attempts to organize them fail. Again and again Authority, seeing their value, has tried to net them and to utilize them as the Egyptian Priesthood or the Christian Church or the Chinese Civil Service or the Group Movement, or some other worthy stunt. But they slip through the net and are gone; when the door is shut, they are no longer in the room, their temple . . . is the Holiness of the Heart's Imagination, and their kingdom . . . is the wide-open world."

E. M. Forster

If our ongling warfare against ignorance and oppression is to result in a genuine commonwealth where the good of all members is served, we'll have to take the long view and begin working toward entirely new institutions and structures. We must see ourselves as members of a new class; not just workers opposed to capitalists, not just the oppressed against the oppressors, but those engaged in lifelong personal self-transformation and seeking ultimate Higher Awareness.

Genuine engagement in this new form of class warfare can only begin when a small enlightened group of persons--having suffered under an oppressive form of rule and having prepared themselves for self-rule--create a new community.

This new society will arise out of the ashes of our present culture, led by persons who have freed themselves from all alluring myths and illusions, looked reality squarely in the face, and begun the long, hard effort to lay a solid foundation for a new society.

"A fellow ain't got a soul of his own, just a little piece of a big soul, the one big soul that belongs to everybody . . . Then it don't matter. I'll be all around in the dark - I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look - wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad. I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready, and when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise and livin' in the houses they build - I'll be there, too."

Tom Joad, "Grapes of Wrath"

__________

1 I'm distinguishing the class of the "rich" as those who make more that $250,000 per year or whose assets total above 1$ billion. If you're in that "class," you won't find this essay of interest. If you're not in that class, you may still consider yourself "rich" if you make more than say $150,000 per year. However, you should be aware that persons outside the "rich class" as designated here have historically and recently been clear victims of the billionaire class--as in the current home foreclosure cannibalism in which even millionaires became "sacrificial animals."

2 Unlike the first Americans who fought militarily to win their freedom against British oppression, it would be idiotic to use violence in our present struggle in this class war. The demonic cabal (a group of wealthy thugs) controls armed violence (military, intelligence agencies, police) in the United States. And, as we've seen in such foreign incursions as Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, the Persian Gulf and Panama and domestic incursions such as Waco and Ruby Ridge, it doesn't hesitate to use violence against anyone it brands as an enemy. Individual attacks against the power structure are not only futile but against the very principles of our class struggle for an improved social order.

3 Nick Beams, "The historic decline of the United States and the eruption of militarism," The World Socialist Web Site, WSWS.Org, 2/12/07

4 Source

5 Federal Reserve System: the creation of a cabal conspiracy in 1913

6 Liquidity: Funds made available through the FED lowering interest rates for borrowing money or outright loaning of money to financial institutions during moments of crisis

7 A recent study by Harvard labor economist Richard Freeman shows that the integration of China and the former Soviet Union into the world labor market has resulted in the global labor force available to capital increasing from about 1.46 billion to around 2.93 billion.